Last week, People & Planet activists performed a piece of street theatre outside the Canadian High Commission, set in a kangaroo court, highlighting the environmental and human injustices caused by the tar sands industry. Poet Martin Powell played the judge, who was bribed by a sleazy oil executive, paralleling the Canadian Government’s attempts to have the Beaver Lake Cree’s legal case thrown out of court over highly politicized technicalities, while the First Nations community struggle to protect their ancestral land.

We expect to hear this week if the case will go ahead to a full trial.

‘One of our best chances to stop tar sands expansion’

The Co-operative’s Toxic Fuels Campaign has described the legal action as ‘one of our best chances to stop tar sands expansion’, as half of the industry’s expansion plans would become illegal if the case succeeded.

For the community to take the Government to court takes a huge amount of commitment and courage, so People & Planet, along with other organisations, are showing our support.

An action also took place in Edinburgh outside the Canadian consulate.

Keeping up UK pressure

We need to keep the pressure on the UK government before the EU votes on the Fuel Quality Directive, February 23rd, which could ban tar sands oil from Europe. The UK government has suggested that they will oppose the ban, due to the influence of Canadian lobbyists. However, if the FQD is passed, it could have a global impact on other country’s willingness to import Canada’s dirty oil.